Nudism, Health, and Modernity: The Natural Cure as Proposed by the German Physical Culture Movement 1900-1914

Abstract

Describes efforts of the German Regeneration-Physical Culture movement to overcome degeneration by calling for a revival of the body in an over-intellectual German Kultur. Claims proponents felt programs of “rational self-cultivation” and exposure of the body to fresh air and sunlight would effect a return to health and the resurrection of a longdormant Germanic racial type. Believes the movement emphasized strength and beauty as the qualities sought in regenerate Germans.